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Father’s Day is this Sunday and what better time to look at paid search advertising for the growing DNA testing and genealogy category?

Ads promoting DNA home testing kits for Father’s Day, seen on U.S. Google, June 14

AdGooroo examined U.S. Google desktop text ad activity on 88 non-branded DNA testing- and genealogy-related keywords from June 2016 through May 2017, including ‘dna testing’, ‘genealogy’, ‘family tree’, ‘genetic testing’ and ‘ethnicity test’. Consumers searching these terms are often looking for answers about their ethnic roots and family history and typically see ads promoting DNA home testing kits, genealogy records, newspaper archives and immigration documents.

During the 12-month period, we found 1,014 advertisers spent $7.8 million sponsoring the DNA testing and genealogy keyword group—a 49% increase over the same period ending in May 2016 and an 81% increase over the same period ending in May 2015, suggesting such products have significantly grown in popularity with consumers over the last three years.

Top Advertisers

Looking at advertisers’ share of total clicks on the DNA testing- and genealogy-related keywords over the last twelve months, the top advertiser by far is Ancestry.com, which garnered a 29.3% click share on the 88 keywords during the period.

MyHeritage.com ranked second with a 12.0% click share, followed closely by 23andMe.com with an 11.9% click share. Rounding out the top five advertisers were Ancestry-owned Genealogy.com (3.4% click share) and LibertyEllisFoundation.org (3.1% click share), the website of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which raises money for restoration/maintenance and a variety of educational programs related to the two monuments.

Paternity Testing

On the subject of fatherhood and DNA home testing kits, we also found significant growth in paid search advertising for home paternity tests over the last three years. According to AdGooroo data, from June 2016 through May 2017, 229 advertisers spent $1.3 million sponsoring 12 paternity test-related keywords via U.S. Google desktop text ads—a 74% increase over the same period ending in May 2016 and a 178% increase over the same period ending in May 2015. Keyword examples include ‘paternity test’, ‘home paternity test’ and ‘dna paternity testing’.

The top advertisers by click share on the paternity keywords over the last 12 months were DNATesting.com (13.0% click share), PaternityDepot.com (12.7%), SwabTest.com (9.2%), GeneTrackUS.com (8.9%) and DNACenter.com (8.6%).

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